ml error messages - untergrund.netin4k.untergrund.net/assembler...

ML Error Messages ML Fatal Errors A1000 cannot open file: filename

The assembler was unable to open a source, include, or output file.

One of the following may be a cause:

u The file does not exist.

u The file is in use by another process.

u The filename is not valid.

u A read-only file with the output filename already exists.

u Not enough file handles exist. In MS-DOS, increase the number of file handles by changing the FILES setting in CONFIG.SYS to allow a larger number of open files. FILES=50 is the recommended setting.

u The current drive is full.

u The current directory is the root and is full.

u The device cannot be written to.

u The drive is not ready.

A1001 I /O error closing file The operating system returned an error when the assembler attempted to close a file.

This error can be caused by having a corrupt fi le system or by removing a disk before the file could be closed.

A1002 I /O error wr iting file The assembler was unable to write to an output file.


u The current drive is full.

u The current directory is the root and is full.

u The device cannot be written to.


A1003 I /O error reading file The assembler encountered an error when trying to read a file.


u The disk has a bad sector.

u The file-access attribute is set to prevent reading.


A1005 assembler limit : macro parameter name table full

Too many parameters, locals, or macro labels were defined for a macro. There was no more room in the macro name table.

Define shorter or fewer names, or remove unnecessary macros.

A1006 invalid command-line option: option

ML did not recognize the given parameter as an option.

This error is generally caused when there is a syntax error on the command line.

A1007 nesting level too deep The assembler reached its nesting limit. The limit is 20 levels except where noted otherwise.

One of the following was nested too deeply:

u A high-level directive such as .IF, .REPEAT, or .WHILE

u A structure definition

u A conditional-assembly directive

u A procedure definition

u A PUSHCONTEXT directive (the limit is 10).

u A segment definition

u An include file

u A macro

A1008 unmatched macro nesting

Either a macro was not terminated before the end of the file, or the terminating directive ENDM was found outside of a macro block.

One cause of this error is omission of the dot before .REPEAT or .WHILE.

A1009 line too long A line in a source file exceeded the limit of 512 characters.

If multiple physical lines are concatenated with the line-continuation character ( \ ), the resulting logical line is still l imited to 512 characters.

A1010 unmatched block nesting :

A block beginning did not have a matching end, or a block end did not have a matching beginning. One of the following may be involved:

u A high-level directive such as .IF, .REPEAT, or .WHILE

u A conditional-assembly directive such as IF, REPEAT, or WHILE

u A structure or union definition


u A segment definition

u A POPCONTEXT directive

u A conditional-assembly directive, such as an ELSE, ELSEIF, or ENDIF without a matching IF

A1011 directive must be in control block

The assembler found a high-level directive where one was not expected. One of the following directives was found:

u .ELSE without .IF

u .ENDIF without .IF

u .ENDW without .WHILE

u .UNTIL [[CXZ]] without .REPEAT

u .CONTINUE without .WHILE or .REPEAT

u .BREAK without .WHILE or .REPEAT

u .ELSE following .ELSE

A1012 error count exceeds 100; stopping assembly The number of nonfatal errors exceeded the assembler limit of 100.

Nonfatal errors are in the range A2xxx. When warnings are treated as errors they are included in the count. Warnings are considered errors if you use the /Wx command-line option, or if you set the Warnings Treated as Errors option in the Macro Assembler Global Options dialog box of PWB.

A1013 invalid numer ical command-line argument : number

The argument specified with an option was not a number or was an invalid number.

A1014 too many arguments There was insufficient memory to hold all of the command-line arguments.

This error usually occurs while expanding input filename wildcards (* and ?). To eliminate this error, assemble multiple source files separately.

A1015 statement too complex The assembler ran out of stack space while trying to parse the specified statement.

One or more of the following changes may eliminate this error:

u Break the statement into several shorter statements.

u Reorganize the statement to reduce the amount of parenthetical nesting.

u If the statement is part of a macro, break the macro into several shorter macros.

A1017 missing source filename ML could not find a file to assemble or pass to the linker.

This error is generated when you give ML command-line options without specifying a filename to act upon. To assemble files that do not have a .ASM extension, use the /Ta command-line option.

This error can also be generated by invoking ML with no parameters if the ML environment variable contains command-line options.

A1901 Internal Assembler Er ror Contact M icrosoft Product Suppor t Services The MASM driver called ML.EXE, which generated a system error.

Note the circumstances of the error and notify Microsoft Corporation by following the instructions in the “ Microsoft Support Services” section of the introduction to this book.

ML Nonfatal Errors A2000 memory operand not allowed in context

A memory operand was given to an instruction that cannot take a memory operand.

A2001 immediate operand not allowed

A constant or memory offset was given to an instruction that cannot take an immediate operand.

A2002 cannot have more than one ELSE clause per IF block

The assembler found an ELSE directive after an existing ELSE directive in a conditional-assembly block (IF block).

Only one ELSE can be used in an IF block. An IF block begins with an IF, IFE, IFB, IFNB, IFDEF, IFNDEF, IFDIF, or IFIDN directive. There can be several ELSEIF statements in an IF block.

One cause of this error is omission of an ENDIF statement from a nested IF block.

A2003 extra characters after statement A directive was followed by unexpected characters.

A2004 symbol type conflict : identifier

The EXTERNDEF or LABEL directive was used on a variable, symbol, data structure, or label that was defined in the same module but with a different type.

A2005 symbol redefinition : identifier

The given nonredefinable symbol was defined in two places.

A2006 undefined symbol : identifier

An attempt was made to use a symbol that was not defined.

One of the following may have occurred:

u A symbol was not defined.

u A field was not a member of the specified structure.

u A symbol was defined in an include file that was not included.

u An external symbol was used without an EXTERN or EXTERNDEF directive.

u A symbol name was misspelled.

u A local code label was referenced outside of its scope.

A2007 non-benign record redefinition A RECORD definition conflicted with a previous definition.

One of the following occurred:

u There were different numbers of fields.

u There were different numbers of bits in a field.

u There was a different label.

u There were different initializers.

A2008 syntax er ror : A token at the current location caused a syntax error.


u A dot prefix was added to or omitted from a directive.

u A reserved word (such as C or SIZE) was used as an identifier.

u An instruction was used that was not available with the current processor or coprocessor selection.

u A comparison run-time operator (such as ==) was used in a conditional assembly statement instead of a relational operator (such as EQ).

u An instruction or directive was given too few operands.

u An obsolete directive was used.

A2009 syntax er ror in expression

An expression on the current line contained a syntax error. This error message may also be a side-effect of a preceding program error.

A2010 invalid type expression The operand to THIS or PTR was not a valid type expression.

A2011 distance invalid for word size of cur rent segment

A procedure definition or a code label defined with LABEL specified an address size that was incompatible with the current segment size.


u A NEAR16 or FAR16 procedure was defined in a 32-bit segment.

u A NEAR32 or FAR32 procedure was defined in a 16-bit segment.

u A code label defined with LABEL specified FAR16 or NEAR16 in a 32-bit segment.

u A code label defined with LABEL specified FAR32 or NEAR32 in a 16-bit segment.

A2012 PROC, MACRO, or macro repeat directive must precede LOCAL

A LOCAL directive must be immediately preceded by a MACRO, PROC, macro repeat directive (such as REPEAT, WHILE, or FOR), or another LOCAL directive.

A2013 .MODEL must precede this directive

A simplified segment directive or a .STARTUP or .EXIT directive was not preceded by a .MODEL directive.

A .MODEL directive must specify the model defaults before a simplified segment directive, or a .STARTUP or .EXIT directive may be used.

A2014 cannot define as public or external : identifier

Only labels, procedures, and numeric equates can be made public or external using PUBLIC, EXTERN, or EXTERNDEF. Local code labels cannot be made public.

A2015 segment attr ibutes cannot change : attribute

A segment was reopened with different attributes than it was opened with originally.

When a SEGMENT directive opens a previously defined segment, the newly opened segment inherits the attributes the segment was defined with.

A2016 expression expected

The assembler expected an expression at the current location but found one of the following:

u A unary operator without an operand

u A binary operator without two operands

u An empty pair of parentheses, ( ), or brackets, [ ]

A2017 operator expected An expression operator was expected at the current location.

One possible cause of this error is a missing comma between expressions in an expression list.

A2018 invalid use of external symbol : identifier

An attempt was made to compare the given external symbol using a relational operator.

The comparison cannot be made because the value or address of an external symbol is not known at assembly time.

A2019 operand must be RECORD type or field The operand following the WIDTH or MASK operator was not valid.

The WIDTH operator takes an operand that is the name of a field or a record. The MASK operator takes an operand that is the name of a field or a record type.

A2020 identifier not a record : identifier

A record type was expected at the current location.

A2021 record constants cannot span line breaks

A record constant must be defined on one physical line. A line ended in the middle of the definition of a record constant.

A2022 instruction operands must be the same size The operands to an instruction did not have the same size.

A2023 instruction operand must have size At least one of the operands to an instruction must have a known size.

A2024 invalid operand size for instruction The size of an operand was not valid.

A2025 operands must be in same segment

Relocatable operands used with a relational or minus operator were not located in the same segment.

A2026 constant expected

The assembler expected a constant expression at the current location. A constant expression is a numeric expression that can be resolved at assembly time.

A2027 operand must be a memory expression The right operand of a PTR expression was not a memory expression.

When the left operand of the PTR operator is a structure or union type, the right operand must be a memory expression.

A2028 expression must be a code address An expression evaluating to a code address was expected.


u SHORT was not followed by a code address.

u NEAR PTR or FAR PTR was applied to something that was not a code address.

A2029 multiple base registers not allowed An attempt was made to combine two base registers in a memory expression.

For example, the following expressions cause this error: ��

In another example, given the following definition: � ��

either of the following lines causes this error: ! �#"$��%�&��'(��% ��#�)&*��

A2030 multiple index registers not allowed An attempt was made to combine two index registers in a memory expression.

For example, the following expressions cause this error: �,+ ��,+ ��

A2031 must be index or base register

An attempt was made to use a register that was not a base or index register in a memory expression.

For example, the following expressions cause this error: ��#��%�

A2032 invalid use of register An attempt was made to use a register that was not valid for the intended use.


u OFFSET was applied to a register. (OFFSET can be applied to a register under the M510 option.)

u A special 386 register was used in an invalid context.

u A register was cast with PTR to a type of invalid size.

u A register was specified as the right operand of a segment override operator (:).

u A register was specified as the right operand of a binary minus operator ( – ).

u An attempt was made to multiply registers using the * operator.

u Brackets ([ ]) were missing around a register that was added to something.

A2033 invalid INVOKE argument : argument number

The INVOKE directive was passed a special 386 register, or a register pair containing a byte register or special 386 register. These registers are illegal with INVOKE.

A2034 must be in segment block One of the following was found outside of a segment block:

u An instruction

u A label definition

u A THIS operator

u A $ operator


u An ALIGN directive

u An ORG directive

A2035 DUP too complex

A declaration using the DUP operator resulted in a data structure with an internal representation that was too large.

A2036 too many initial values for structure: structure

The given structure was defined with more initializers than the number of fields in the type declaration of the structure.

A2037 statement not allowed inside structure definition A structure definition contained an invalid statement.

A structure cannot contain instructions, labels, procedures, control-flow directives, .STARTUP, or .EXIT.

A2038 missing operand for macro operator

The assembler found the end of a macro’s parameter list immediately after the ! or % operator.

A2039 line too long A source-file line exceeded the limit of 512 characters.

If multiple physical lines are concatenated with the line-continuation character ( \ ), the resulting logical line is still limited to 512 characters.

A2040 segment register not allowed in context A segment register was specified for an instruction that cannot take a segment register.

A2041 str ing or text literal too long

A string or text literal, or a macro function return value, exceeded the limit of 255 characters.

A2042 statement too complex A statement was too complex for the assembler to parse.

Reduce either the number of tokens or the number of forward-referenced identifiers.

A2043 identifier too long An identifier exceeded the limit of 247 characters.

A2044 invalid character in file

The source file contained a character outside a comment, string, or literal that was not recognized as an operator or other legal character.

A2045 missing angle bracket or brace in literal

An unmatched angle bracket (either < or >) or brace (either { or }) was found in a literal constant or an initializer.


u A pair of angle brackets or braces was not complete.

u An angle bracket was intended to be literal, but it was not preceded by an exclamation point (!) to indicate a literal character.

A2046 missing single or double quotation mark in str ing An unmatched quotation mark (either ' or " ) was found in a string.


u A pair of quotation marks around a string was not complete.

u A pair of quotation marks around a string was formed of one single and one double quotation mark.

u A single or double quotation mark was intended to be literal, but the surrounding quotation marks were the same kind as the literal one.

A2047 empty (null) str ing A string consisted of a delimiting pair of quotation marks and no characters within.

For a string to be valid, it must contain 1–255 characters.

A2048 nondigit in number

A number contained a character that was not in the set of characters used by the current radix (base).

This error can occur if a B or D radix specifier is used when the default radix is one that includes that letter as a valid digit.

A2049 syntax er ror in floating-point constant A floating-point constant contained an invalid character.

A2050 real or BCD number not allowed

A floating-point (real) number or binary coded decimal (BCD) constant was used other than as a data initializer.


u A real number or a BCD was used in an expression.

u A real number was used to initialize a directive other than DWORD, QWORD, or TBYTE.

u A BCD was used to initialize a directive other than TBYTE.

A2051 text item required A literal constant or text macro was expected.

One of the following was expected:

u A literal constant, which is text enclosed in < >

u A text macro name

u A macro function call

u A % followed by a constant expression

A2052 forced error The conditional-error directive .ERR or .ERR1 was used to generate this error.

A2053 forced error : value equal to 0 The conditional-error directive .ERRE was used to generate this error.

A2054 forced error : value not equal to 0 The conditional-error directive .ERRNZ was used to generate this error.

A2055 forced error : symbol not defined The conditional-error directive .ERRNDEF was used to generate this error.

A2056 forced error : symbol defined The conditional-error directive .ERRDEF was used to generate this error.

A2057 forced error : str ing blank The conditional-error directive .ERRB was used to generate this error.

A2058 forced error : str ing not blank The conditional-error directive .ERRNB was used to generate this error.

A2059 forced error : str ings equal The conditional-error directive .ERRIDN or .ERRIDNI was used to generate this error.

A2060 forced error : str ings not equal The conditional-error directive .ERRDIF or .ERRDIFI was used to generate this error.

A2061 [[ELSE]]IF2/.ERR2 not allowed : single-pass assembler A directive for a two-pass assembler was found.

The Microsoft Macro Assembler (MASM) is a one-pass assembler. MASM does not accept the IF2, ELSEIF2, and .ERR2 directives.

This error also occurs if an ELSE directive follows an IF1 directive.

A2062 expression too complex for .UNTILCXZ An expression used in the condition that follows .UNTILCXZ was too complex.

The .UNTILCXZ directive can take only one expression, which can contain only == or !=. It cannot take other comparison operators or more complex expressions using operators like ||.

A2063 can ALIGN only to power of 2 : expression

The expression specified with the ALIGN directive was invalid.

The ALIGN expression must be a power of 2 between 2 and 256, and must be less than or equal to the alignment of the current segment, structure, or union.

A2064 structure alignment must be 1, 2, or 4 The alignment specified in a structure definition was invalid.

A2065 expected : token

The assembler expected the given token.

A2066 incompatible CPU mode and segment size

An attempt was made to open a segment with a USE16, USE32, or FLAT attribute that was not compatible with the specified CPU, or to change to a 16-bit CPU while in a 32-bit segment.

The USE32 and FLAT attributes must be preceded by one of the following processor directives: .386, .386C, .386P, .486, or .486P.

A2067 LOCK must be followed by a memory operation

The LOCK prefix preceded an invalid instruction. No instruction can take the LOCK prefix unless one of its operands is a memory expression.

A2068 instruction prefix not allowed

One of the prefixes REP, REPE, REPNE, or LOCK preceded an instruction for which it was not valid.

A2069 no operands allowed for this instr uction One or more operands were specified with an instruction that takes no operands.

A2070 invalid instr uction operands One or more operands were not valid for the instruction they were specified with.

A2071 initializer too large for specified size An initializer value was too large for the data area it was initializing.

A2072 cannot access symbol in given segment or group: identifier

The given identifier cannot be addressed from the segment or group specified.

A2073 operands have different frames Two operands in an expression were in different frames.

Subtraction of pointers requires the pointers to be in the same frame. Subtraction of two expressions that have different effective frames is not allowed. An effective frame is calculated from the segment, group, or segment register.

A2074 cannot access label through segment registers

An attempt was made to access a label through a segment register that was not assumed to its segment or group.

A2075 jump destination too far [: by 'n' bytes] The destination specified with a jump instruction was too far from the instruction.

One of the following may be a solution:

u Enable the LJMP option.

u Remove the SHORT operator. If SHORT has forced a jump that is too far, n is the number of bytes out of range.

u Rearrange code so that the jump is no longer out of range.

A2076 jump destination must specify a label A direct jump’s destination must be relative to a code label.

A2077 instruction does not allow NEAR indirect addressing

A conditional jump or loop cannot take a memory operand. It must be given a relative address or label.

A2078 instruction does not allow FAR indirect addressing

A conditional jump or loop cannot take a memory operand. It must be given a relative address or label.

A2079 instruction does not allow FAR direct addressing A conditional jump or loop cannot be to a different segment or group.

A2080 jump distance not possible in cur rent CPU mode

A distance was specified with a jump instruction that was incompatible with the current processor mode.

For example, 48-bit jumps require .386 or above.

A2081 missing operand after unary operator An operator required an operand, but no operand followed.

A2082 cannot mix 16- and 32-bit registers An address expression contained both 16- and 32-bit registers.

For example, the following expression causes this error: ��

A2083 invalid scale value A register scale was specified that was not 1, 2, 4, or 8.

A2084 constant value too large A constant was specified that was too big for the context in which it was used.

A2085 instruction or register not accepted in cur rent CPU mode

An attempt was made to use an instruction, register, or keyword that was not valid for the current processor mode.

For example, 32-bit registers require .386 or above. Control registers such as CR0 require privileged mode .386P or above. This error will also be generated for the NEAR32, FAR32, and FLAT keywords, which require .386 or above.

A2086 reserved word expected

One or more items in the list specified with a NOKEYWORD option were not recognized as reserved words.

A2087 instruction form requires 80386/486 An instruction was used that was not compatible with the current processor mode.

One of the following processor directives must precede the instruction: .386, .386C, .386P, .486, or .486P.

A2088 END directive required at end of file The assembler reached the end of the main source file and did not find an .END directive.

A2089 too many bits in RECORD : identifier


u Too many bits were defined for the given record field.

u Too many total bits were defined for the given record.

The size limit for a record or a field in a record is 16 bits when doing 16-bit arithmetic or 32 bits when doing 32-bit arithmetic.

A2090 positive value expected A positive value was not found in one of the following situations:

u The starting position specified for SUBSTR or @SubStr

u The number of data objects specified for COMM

u The element size specified for COMM

A2091 index value past end of str ing An index value exceeded the length of the string it referred to when used with INSTR, SUBSTR, @InStr , or @SubStr .

A2092 count must be positive or zero

The operand specified to the SUBSTR directive, @SubStr macro function, SHL operator, SHR operator, or DUP operator was negative.

A2093 count value too large

The length argument specified for SUBSTR or @SubStr exceeded the length of the specified string.

A2094 operand must be relocatable An operand was not relative to a label.


u An operand specified with the END directive was not relative to a label.

u An operand to the SEG operator was not relative to a label.

u The right operand to the minus operator was relative to a label, but the left operand was not.

u The operands to a relational operator were either not both integer constants or not both memory operands. Relational operators can take operands that are both addresses or both non-addresses but not one of each.

A2095 constant or relocatable label expected The operand specified must be a constant expression or a memory offset.

A2096 segment, group, or segment register expected A segment or group was expected but was not found.


u The left operand specified with the segment override operator (:) was not a segment register (CS, DS, SS, ES, FS, or GS), group name, segment name, or segment expression.

u The ASSUME directive was given a segment register without a valid segment address, segment register, group, or the special FLAT group.

A2097 segment expected : identifier

The GROUP directive was given an identifier that was not a defined segment.

A2098 invalid operand for OFFSET

The expression following the OFFSET operator must be a memory expression or an immediate expression.

A2099 invalid use of external absolute An attempt was made to subtract a constant defined in another module from an expression.

You can avoid this error by placing constants in include files rather than making them external.

A2100 segment or group not allowed

An attempt was made to use a segment or group in a way that was not valid. Segments or groups cannot be added.

A2101 cannot add two relocatable labels An attempt was made to add two expressions that were both relative to a label.

A2102 cannot add memory expression and code label An attempt was made to add a code label to a memory expression.

A2103 segment exceeds 64K limit A 16-bit segment exceeded the size limit of 64K.

A2104 invalid type for data declaration : type

The given type was not valid for a data declaration.

A2105 HIGH and LOW require immediate operands

The operand specified with either the HIGH or the LOW operator was not an immediate expression.

A2107 cannot have implicit far jump or call to near label

An attempt was made to make an implicit far jump or call to a near label in another segment.

A2108 use of register assumed to ERROR

An attempt was made to use a register that had been assumed to ERROR with the ASSUME directive.

A2109 only white space or comment can follow backslash

A character other than a semicolon (;) or a white-space character (spaces or TAB characters) was found after a line-continuation character ( \ ).

A2110 COMMENT delimiter expected A delimiter character was not specified for a COMMENT directive.

The delimiter character is specified by the first character that is not white space (spaces or TAB characters) after the COMMENT directive. The comment consists of all text following the delimiter until the end of the line containing the next appearance of the delimiter.

A2111 conflicting parameter definition

A procedure defined with the PROC directive did not match its prototype as defined with the PROTO directive.

A2112 PROC and prototype calling conventions conflict

A procedure was defined in a prototype (using the PROTO, EXTERNDEF, or EXTERN directive), but the calling convention did not match the corresponding PROC directive.

A2113 invalid radix tag The specified radix was not a number in the range 2–16.

A2114 INVOKE argument type mismatch : argument number

The type of the arguments passed using the INVOKE directive did not match the type of the parameters in the prototype of the procedure being invoked.

A2115 invalid coprocessor register The coprocessor index specified was negative or greater than 7.

A2116 instructions and initialized data not allowed in AT segments An instruction or initialized data was found in a segment defined with the AT attribute.

Data in AT segments must be declared with the ? initializer.

A2117 /AT option requires TINY memory model

The /AT option was specified on the assembler command line, but the program being assembled did not specify the TINY memory model with the .MODEL directive.

This error is only generated for modules that specify a start address or use the .STARTUP directive.

A2118 cannot have segment address references with TINY model An attempt was made to reference a segment in a TINY model program.

All TINY model code and data must be accessed with NEAR addresses.

A2119 language type must be specified A procedure definition or prototype was not given a language type.

A language type must be declared in each procedure definition or prototype if a default language type is not specified. A default language type is set using either the .MODEL directive, OPTION LANG, or the ML command-line options /Gc or /Gd.

A2120 PROLOGUE must be macro function

The identifier specified with the OPTION PROLOGUE directive was not recognized as a defined macro function.

The user-defined prologue must be a macro function that returns the number of bytes needed for local variables and any extra space needed for the macro function.

A2121 EPILOGUE must be macro procedure

The identifier specified with the OPTION EPILOGUE directive was not recognized as a defined macro procedure.

The user-defined epilogue macro cannot return a value.

A2122 alternate identifier not allowed with EXTERNDEF An attempt was made to specify an alternate identifier with an EXTERNDEF directive.

You can specify an optional alternate identifier with the EXTERN directive but not with EXTERNDEF.

A2123 text macro nesting level too deep A text macro was nested too deeply. The nesting limit for text macros is 40.

A2125 missing macro argument A required argument to @InStr , @SubStr , or a user-defined macro was not specified.

A2126 EXITM used inconsistently The EXITM directive was used both with and without a return value in the same macro.

A macro procedure returns a value; a macro function does not.

A2127 macro function argument list too long

There were too many characters in a macro function’s argument list. This error applies also to a prologue macro function called implicitly by the PROC directive.

A2129 VARARG parameter must be last parameter A parameter other than the last one was given the VARARG attribute.

The :VARARG specification can be applied only to the last parameter in a parameter list for macro and procedure definitions and prototypes. You cannot use multiple :VARARG specifications in a macro.

A2130 VARARG parameter not allowed with LOCAL

An attempt was made to specify :VARARG as the type in a procedure’s LOCAL declaration.

A2131 VARARG parameter requires C calling convention

A VARARG parameter was specified in a procedure definition or prototype, but the C, SYSCALL , or STDCALL calling convention was not specified.

A2132 ORG needs a constant or local offset The expression specified with the ORG directive was not valid.

ORG requires an immediate expression with no reference to an external label or to a label outside the current segment.

A2133 register value overwr itten by INVOKE

A register was passed as an argument to a procedure, but the code generated by INVOKE to pass other arguments destroyed the contents of the register.

The AX, AL, AH, EAX, DX, DL, DH, and EDX registers may be used by the assembler to perform data conversion.

Use a different register.

A2134 structure too large to pass with INVOKE : argument number

An attempt was made with INVOKE to pass a structure that exceeded 255 bytes.

Pass structures by reference if they are larger than 255 bytes.

A2136 too many arguments to INVOKE

The number of arguments passed using the INVOKE directive exceeded the number of parameters in the prototype for the procedure being invoked.

A2137 too few arguments to INVOKE

The number of arguments passed using the INVOKE directive was fewer than the number of required parameters specified in the prototype for the procedure being invoked.

A2138 invalid data initializer The initializer list for a data definition was invalid.

This error can be caused by using the R radix override with too few digits.

A2140 RET operand too large The operand specified to RET, RETN, or RETF exceeded two bytes.

A2141 too many operands to instruction Too many operands were specified with a string control instruction.

A2142 cannot have more than one .ELSE clause per .IF block The assembler found more than one .ELSE clause within the current .IF block.

Use .ELSEIF for all but the last block.

A2143 expected data label

The LENGTHOF, SIZEOF, LENGTH, or SIZE operator was applied to a non-data label, or the SIZEOF or SIZE operator was applied to a type.

A2144 cannot nest procedures

An attempt was made to nest a procedure containing a parameter, local variable, USES clause, or a statement that generated a new segment or group.

A2145 EXPORT must be FAR : procedure

The given procedure was given EXPORT visibility and NEAR distance.

All EXPORT procedures must be FAR. The default visibility may have been set with the OPTION PROC:EXPORT statement or the SMALL or COMPACT memory models.

A2146 procedure declared with two visibility attr ibutes : procedure

The given procedure was given conflicting visibilities.

A procedure was declared with two different visibilities (PUBLIC, PRIVATE, or EXPORT). The PROC and PROTO statements for a procedure must have the same visibility.

A2147 macro label not defined : macrolabel

The given macro label was not found.

A macro label is defined with :macrolabel.

A2148 invalid symbol type in expression : identifier

The given identifier was used in an expression in which it was not valid.

For example, a macro procedure name is not allowed in an expression.

A2149 byte register cannot be fir st operand A byte register was specified to an instruction that cannot take it as the first operand.

A2150 word register cannot be fir st operand A word register was specified to an instruction that cannot take it as the first operand.

A2151 special register cannot be fir st operand A special register was specified to an instruction that cannot take it as the first operand.

A2152 coprocessor register cannot be fir st operand

A coprocessor (stack) register was specified to an instruction that cannot take it as the first operand.

A2153 cannot change size of expression computations

An attempt was made to set the expression word size when the size had been already set using the EXPR16, EXPR32, SEGMENT:USE32, or SEGMENT:FLAT option or the .386 or higher processor selection directive.

A2154 syntax er ror in control-flow directive

The condition for a control-flow directive (such as .IF or .WHILE) contained a syntax error.

A2155 cannot use 16-bit register with a 32-bit address An attempt was made to mix 16-bit and 32-bit offsets in an expression.

Use a 32-bit register with a symbol defined in a 32-bit segment.

For example, if �� is defined in a 32-bit segment, the following causes this error: � ��

A2156 constant value out of range An invalid value was specified for the PAGE directive.

The first parameter of the PAGE directive can be either 0 or a value in the range 10–255. The second parameter of the PAGE directive can be either 0 or a value in the range 60–255.

A2157 missing r ight parenthesis A right parenthesis, ), was missing from a macro function call.

Be sure that parentheses are in pairs if nested.

A2158 type is wrong size for register

An attempt was made to assume a general-purpose register to a type with a different size than the register.

For example, the following pair of statements causes this error: �� )�� +�� +�� %�� *��%��+�� & � ��#��#��% ��

A2159 structure cannot be instanced

An attempt was made to create an instance of a structure when there were no fields or data defined in the structure definition or when ORG was used in the structure definition.

A2160 non-benign str ucture redefinition : label incor rect

A label given in a structure redefinition either did not exist in the original definition or was out of order in the redefinition.

A2161 non-benign str ucture redefinition : too few labels Not enough members were defined in a structure redefinition.

A2162 OLDSTRUCT/NOOLDSTRUCT state cannot be changed

Once the OLDSTRUCTS or NOOLDSTRUCTS option has been specified and a structure has been defined, the structure scoping cannot be altered or respecified in the same module.

A2163 non-benign str ucture redefinition : incor rect initializers A STRUCT or UNION was redefined with a different initializer value.

When structures and unions are defined more than once, the definitions must be identical. This error can be caused by using a variable as an initializer and having the value of the variable change between definitions.

A2164 non-benign str ucture redefinition : too few initializers A STRUCT or UNION was redefined with too few initializers.

When structures and unions are defined more than once, the definitions must be identical.

A2165 non-benign str ucture redefinition : label has incor rect offset The offset of a label in a redefined STRUCT or UNION differs from the original definition.

When structures and unions are defined more than once, the definitions must be identical. This error can be caused by a missing member or by a member that has a different size than in its original definition.

A2166 structure field expected The righthand side of a dot operator (.) is not a structure field.

This error may occur with some code acceptable to previous versions of the assembler. To enable the old behavior, use OPTION OLDSTRUCTS, which is automatically enabled by OPTION M510 or the /Zm command-line option.

A2167 unexpected literal found in expression A literal was found where an expression was expected.


u A literal was used as an initializer

u A record tag was omitted from a record constant

A2169 divide by zero in expression An expression contains a divisor whose value is equal to zero.

Check that the syntax of the expression is correct and that the divisor (whether constant or variable) is correctly initialized.

A2170 directive must appear inside a macro A GOTO or EXITM directive was found outside the body of a macro.

A2171 cannot expand macro function A syntax error prevented the assembler from expanding the macro function.

A2172 too few bits in RECORD There was an attempt to define a record field of 0 bits.

A2173 macro function cannot redefine itself

There was an attempt to define a macro function inside the body of a macro function with the same name. This error can also occur when a member of a chain of macros attempts to redefine a previous member of the chain.

A2175 invalid qualified type

An identifier was encountered in a qualified type that was not a type, structure, record, union, or prototype.

A2176 floating point initializer on an integer var iable

An attempt was made to use a floating-point initializer with DWORD, QWORD, or TBYTE. Only integer initializers are allowed.

A2177 nested structure improper ly initialized The nested structure initialization could not be resolved.

This error can be caused by using different beginning and ending delimiters in a nested structure initialization.

A2178 invalid use of FLAT There was an ambiguous reference to FLAT as a group.

This error is generated when there is a reference to FLAT instead of a FLAT subgroup. For example, ! �#" �#�)&�� + �� ! �#" �#�)& ��

A2179 structure improper ly initialized There was an error in a structure initializer.


u The initializer is not a valid expression.

u The initializer is an invalid DUP statement.

A2180 improper list initialization

In a structure, there was an attempt to initialize a list of items with a value or list of values of the wrong size.

A2181 initializer must be a str ing or single item

There was an attempt to initialize a structure element with something other than a single item or string.

This error can be caused by omitting braces ({ }) around an initializer.

A2182 initializer must be a single item

There was an attempt to initialize a structure element with something other than a single item.

This error can be caused by omitting braces ({ }) around an initializer.

A2183 initializer must be a single byte

There was an attempt to initialize a structure element of byte size with something other than a single byte.

A2184 improper use of list initializer The assembler did not expect an opening brace ({) at this point.

A2185 improper literal initialization A literal structure initializer was not properly delimited.

This error can be caused by missing angle brackets (< >) or braces ({ }) around an initializer or by extra characters after the end of an initializer.

A2186 extra characters in literal initialization A literal structure initializer was not properly delimited.


u There were missing or mismatched angle brackets (< >) or braces ({ }) around an initializer.

u There were extra characters after the end of an initializer.

u There was a syntax error in the structure initialization.

A2187 must use floating point initializer

A variable declared with the REAL4, REAL8, and REAL10 directives must be initialized with a floating-point number or a question mark (?).

This error can be caused by giving an initializer in integer form (such as 18) instead of in floating-point form (18.0).

A2188 cannot use .EXIT for OS_OS2 with .8086

The INVOKE generated by the .EXIT statement under OS_OS2 requires the .186 (or higher) directive, since it must be able to use the PUSH instruction to push immediates directly.

A2189 invalid combination with segment alignment

The alignment specified by the ALIGN or EVEN directive was greater than the current segment alignment as specified by the SEGMENT directive.

A2190 INVOKE requires prototype for procedure

The INVOKE directive must be preceded by a PROTO statement for the procedure being called.

When using INVOKE with an address rather than an explicit procedure name, you must precede the address with a pointer to the prototype.

A2191 cannot include structure in self You cannot reference a structure recursively (inside its own definition).

A2192 symbol language attr ibute conflict

Two declarations for the same symbol have conflicting language attributes (such as C and PASCAL ). The attributes should be identical or compatible.

A2193 non-benign COMM redefinition

A variable was redefined with the COMM directive to a different language type, distance, size, or instance count.

Multiple COMM definitions of a variable must be identical.

A2194 COMM var iable exceeds 64K A variable declared with the COMM directive in a 16-bit segment was greater than 64K.

A2195 parameter or local cannot have void type The assembler attempted to create an argument or create a local without a type.

This error can be caused by declaring or passing a symbol followed by a colon without specifying a type or by using a user-defined type defined as void.

A2196 cannot use TINY model with OS_OS2

A .MODEL statement specified the TINY memory model and the OS_OS2 operating system. The tiny memory model is not allowed under OS/2.

A2197 expression size must be 32-bits

There was an attempt to use the 16-bit expression evaluator in a 32-bit segment. In a 32-bit segment (USE32 or FLAT), you cannot use the default 16-bit expression evaluator (OPTION EXPR16).

A2198 .EXIT does not work with 32-bit segments

The .EXIT directive cannot be used in a 32-bit segment; it is valid only when generating 16-bit code.

A2199 .STARTUP does not work with 32-bit segments

The .STARTUP directive cannot be used in a 32-bit segment; it is valid only when generating 16-bit code.

A2200 ORG directive not allowed in unions The ORG directive is not valid inside a UNION definition.

You can use the ORG directive inside STRUCT definitions, but it is meaningless inside a UNION.

A2201 scope state cannot be changed

Both OPTION SCOPED and OPTION NOSCOPED statements occurred in a module. You cannot switch scoping behavior in a module.

This error may be caused by an OPTION SCOPED or OPTION NOSCOPED statement in an include file.

A2202 illegal use of segment register

You cannot use segment overrides for the FS or GS segment registers when generating floating-point emulation instructions with the /FPi command-line option or OPTION EMULATOR.

A2203 cannot declare scoped code label as PUBLIC

A code label defined with the “ label:” syntax was declared PUBLIC. Use the “ label::” syntax, the LABEL directive, or OPTION NOSCOPED to eliminate this error.

A2204 .MSFLOAT directive is obsolete : ignored

The Microsoft Binary Format is no longer supported. You should convert your code to the IEEE numeric standard, which is used in the 80x87-series coprocessors.

A2205 ESC instruction is obsolete : ignored

The ESC (Escape) instruction is no longer supported. All numeric coprocessor instructions are now supported directly by the assembler.

A2206 missing operator in expression

An expression cannot be evaluated because it is missing an operator. This error message may also be a side-effect of a preceding program error.

The following line will generate this error: "��%��

A2207 missing r ight parenthesis in expression

An expression cannot be evaluated because it is missing a right (closing) parenthesis. This error message may also be a side-effect of a preceding program error.


A2208 missing left parenthesis in expression

An expression cannot be evaluated because it is missing a left (opening) parenthesis. This error message may also be a side-effect of a preceding program error.


A2209 reference to forward macro redefinition A macro cannot be accessed because it has not been yet defined.

Move the macro definition ahead of all references to the macro.

A2901 cannot run ML.EXE The MASM driver could not spawn ML.EXE.


u ML.EXE was not in the path.

u The READ attribute was not set on ML.EXE.

u There was not enough memory.

ML Warnings A4000 cannot modify READONLY segment

An attempt was made to modify an operand in a segment marked with the READONLY attribute.

A4002 non-unique STRUCT/UNION field used without qualification

A STRUCT or UNION field can be referenced without qualification only if it has a unique identifier.

This conflict can be resolved either by renaming one of the structure fields to make it unique or by fully specifying both field references.

The NONUNIQUE keyword requires that all references to the elements of a STRUCT or UNION be fully specified.

A4003 start address on END directive ignored with .STARTUP

Both .STARTUP and a program load address (optional with the END directive) were specified. The address specification with the END directive was ignored.

A4004 cannot ASSUME CS

An attempt was made to assume a value for the CS register. CS is always set to the current segment or group.

A4005 unknown default prologue argument An unknown argument was passed to the default prologue.

The default prologue understands only the FORCEFRAME and LOADDS arguments.

A4006 too many arguments in macro call

There were more arguments given in the macro call than there were parameters in the macro definition.

A4007 option untranslated, directive required : option

There is no ML command-line equivalent for the given MASM option. The desired behavior can be obtained by using a directive in the source file.

Option Directive

/A .ALPHA /P OPTION READONLY /S .SEQ

A4008 invalid command-line option value, default is used : option

The value specified with the given option was not valid. The option was ignored, and the default was assumed.

A4009 insufficient memory for /EP : /EP ignored There is not enough memory to generate a first-pass listing.

A4010 expected '>' on text literal A macro was called with a text literal argument that was missing a closing angle bracket.

A4011 multiple .MODEL directives found : .MODEL ignored

More than one .MODEL directive was found in the current module. Only the first .MODEL statement is used.

A4012 line number information for segment without class 'CODE'

There were instructions in a segment that did not have a class name that ends with “ CODE.” The assembler did not generate CodeView information for these instructions.

CodeView cannot process modules with code in segments with class names that do not end with “ CODE.”

A4013 instructions and initialized data not suppor ted in AT segments

An instruction or initialized data was found in a segment defined with the AT attribute. The code or data will not be loaded at run time.

Data in AT segments must be declared with the ? initializer.

A4910 cannot open file: filename

The given filename could not be in the current path.

Make sure that filename was copied from the distribution disks and is in the current path.

A5000 @@: label defined but not referenced

A jump target was defined with the @@: label, but the target was not used by a jump instruction.

One common cause of this error is insertion of an extra @@: label between the jump and the @@: label that the jump originally referred to.

A5001 expression expected, assume value 0

There was an IF, ELSEIF, IFE, IFNE, ELSEIFE, or ELSEIFNE directive without an expression to evaluate. The assembler assumes a 0 for the comparison expression.

A5002 externdef previously assumed to be external

The OPATTR or .TYPE operator was applied to a symbol after the symbol was used in an EXTERNDEF statement but before it was declared. These operators were used on a line where the assembler assumed that the symbol was external.

A5003 length of symbol previously assumed to be different

The LENGTHOF, LENGTH, SIZEOF, or SIZE operator was applied to a symbol after the symbol was used in an EXTERNDEF statement but before it was declared. These operators were used on a line where the assembler assumed that the symbol had a different length and size.

A5004 symbol previously assumed to not be in a group

A symbol was used in an EXTERNDEF statement outside of a segment and then was declared inside a segment.

A5005 types are different

The type given by an INVOKE statement differed from that given in the procedure prototype. The assembler performed the appropriate type conversion.

A6001 no retur n from procedure

A PROC statement generated a prologue, but there was no RET or IRET instruction found inside the procedure block.

A6003 conditional j ump lengthened

A conditional jump was encoded as a reverse conditional jump around a near unconditional jump.

You may be able to rearrange code to avoid the longer form.

A6004 procedure argument or local not referenced

You passed a procedure argument or created a variable with the LOCAL directive that was not used in the procedure body.

Unnecessary parameters and locals waste code and stack space.

A6005 expression condition may be pass-dependent

Under the /Zm command-line option or the OPTION M510 directive, the value of an expression changed between passes.

This error message may indicate that the code is pass-dependent and must be rewritten.

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